This week i found an article about the endangered species list. On the All About Wildlife Blog they have composed their own list of animals that they believe are in the most danger of becoming extincted. The article is about an animal that has been added recently, i picked this article cause the reason this animal is endangered. In class all this week we were talking about how when an ecosystem is ruined what kind of stuff it effects, and animals are a very big that is effected. The Northern Sportive Lemur is the new recipient of the top 10 list.

These Lemurs are very intolerable to change in their environments. The Northern Sportive Lemur is a specialist in its ecosystem. "The northern sportive lemur is restricted to the very northern-most parts of Madagascar, from the Montagne d’Ambre southwards to the Mahavay River and east to Vohemar". There are only 18 of them left on this planet in that one small location, being held in captivity to assure their survival. These Lemurs are very interesting primates, they are considered caecotrophic, which means they eat their own feces or poo. As well as being caecotrophic they are also able to detect the presents of other primates in their territory, even know they are know as one of the smallest species of Lemur. Lemurs are know to be nocturnal animals, which means they sleep during the day and hunt at night. They sleep in small wholes burrowed into the trees ranging anywhere from 1 to 8 feet above ground. The main predator of The Northern Sportive Lemur is the Dumeril's boas. 
The main reason that most of the Lemurs today are gone is because of slash and burn forest cutting company's that are out for the Madagascar's precious wood's and resources. The Lemurs habitat ranges from anywhere of dry deciduous forests to the wetter evergreen forests that dominate most of the Madagascar's Biomes.

Through Captivity and very close watch on The Northern Sportive Lemur's behaviors and activity they can be monitored and conserved to be able to survive in the wild again one day. The only way to really keep these Lemur's from being extincted is to stop cutting down their natural habitats, because when you harm one animals habitats you harm and endanger them all.

The Bunker

     While reading through my blog feed, i saw something that particularly stood out to me and that look very interesting. A post about a native species in the ocean, that supports 90% of ocean life. Atlantic Menhaden or Bunker are one of the biggest and most abundant prey in the ocean to a variety of predators.

     Originally called Menhaden by the Native Americans, these fish have always been a very precious need of the ocean. Striped bass, Bluefish, Whales, Dolphins, Sharks, and birds like Osprey and Terns depend on menhaden as a food source to keep them alive. Through the food change cycle, "Bunker's" are actually primary consumers mostly because they ate plankton off of the Ocean surface. Being secondary consumers and predators, the things that eat the Bunker are getting very high energy. The Bunker travel in schools, and jump out of the water when threatened. Very agile and quick the Bunkers can evade most attacks when they are individual, but when in schools they are easily blinded by the others and get ate. But like most animals, when the Bunker are in big schools they try to scar off their predators by appearing as a bigger animal or object. The Menhaden are also have very important roles in other things to, their skin is to oily for humans to eat but it just perfect for about everything else. We have used Bunker oil in numerous things, first starting with the Native Americans federalizing their crops with it, to now where we out it in our hair products.

     The fish we call the Menhaden, Mossbunker, Bunker is a very important animal to all marine and human life, but like everything, only one life can have it. Bunker are being over caught and harvested in the Ocean which has lead to their deaths and extreme population decrease. The people catching them don't think about much but the money that they will be making, but little do they know, the Bunker are more important than anything in the Ocean. Scientist have recently been researching the topic, and have found that populations of big fish have gone down from the absence of the Bunker. They said most importantly that through a couple big Conservationist and people that are willing to help, we could possibility save the fish and get their populations.

Waste in our water!

     Today our biggest and most talked about problem is water. Water for some of us my seem plentiful and for others, not so much. There are over 1 billion people on this planet that don't have the availability to clean and fresh drinking water. In this article i was reading from "The BioFresh Blog", they talk about the struggles that our country is having with trying to ration and save our "good" water.

     As well as our water being scarce for our country and its people, it is also happening in all other countries around the world as well. If you think about it, it only makes sense cause only 1% out of the 73% of water on our earth is usable to us as humans. The worse part about water loss in other countries is the constant fight between them for something, they are now fighting about who's water is who's and it is tearing apart their countries and economy's as the do it. While other countries fight, the U.S. helps them, but most of our focus is toward making more efficient ways of purifying water and cheaper ways to get it, make it, and distribute it. Not only is water a problem with counties but it is also a very big problem for farmers and our food industry. The less water that we have the less food that we get and grow, Most farmers live in the lower parts of the U.S. that often supports the happenings and tendency's of Droughts. Do to the lack of water to provide for the plants and crops, there is so little water during the droughts that the ground is dry and there is not even a drop of water in the soils. Do to no water and a loss of millions of profits and food, the food market prices have soared through the roof and most sandstorms occur in the states the have the driest areas. The biggest concern that the Scientist have with the water loss is that water is one of the most important essentials to almost everything in an ecosystem, it supports merely every aspect of life for every organism on our planet.

     The problem we are having today that is effecting us so much comes from big business and company's that produce waste, we also have problems from agricultural businesses as well. The biggest contributor to water pollution is company's excess chemicals and waste made after the production process. When they have the waste they simply just dump it right into our local creeks and rivers. Recent laws prevent most of that now, certain laws were put in place from the company to clean the water to a preferred safe amount according to Scientist judgement. Other ways that company's can pollute is by their run-off water from farm fields. Harmful chemicals and overuse of nutrients that they put on the fields can be carried into streams and rivers by rainfall. The run-off gets in the water and either effects its color, life, or gives it more than needed nutrients to grow, which then eventually would make the area a dead zone.
 
     Through conservationist and the Government fighting the constant battle of keeping our Environmental problems to a stop, and at the attention to the public to take action, we could possibly stop some of the harm that is being done to our Earth. Everyone already knows that we can not fix what has already been done, but the biggest thing to do in order to help is to prevent anything else from on-going.

    "About 20 years ago, one of the world’s most beautiful and otherworldly fish, the lion fish, started showing up in south Florida and the Caribbean". While searching through my readings today, I read one article that specifically stuck out from the rest on Carl Safina's blog about Lion Fish. Scientist on the job are saying that there has been a giant invasion of Lion Fish in our Oceans. They say that they came from people letting there aquariums out of the coasts of Florida.

    Lion Fish are very adaptable to any kind of wrecks or reefs in any Ocean. The biggest problem the scientist say they are making is, the fish are coming in and breeding like crazy and eating all of the native reef fish around. The younger Lion's are not so much a problem, but the bigger Lion's (being anywhere from 10' to 15') are making boroughs in the reefs and killing out all of the fish that were there before them.

    The Scientist aren't so much worried about there effect right now, because they have found somewhat positive ways to kill them by gathering volunteers an going on a deep Sea derby to kill a couple thousand of them at at time. The biggest threat the Lion's have on anything is, their effect on humans. An uneducated person could see this fish and try to touch it, but Lion fish are very venomous and have large spines that come off of them that hold poison. They are ranked as one of the most venomous thing in the world, one touch of this fish could kill a human in minutes, especially in deep water or in a scuba diving accident. While the scientist are rounding up people to try and catch these fish, they must be having some worries of how people could get hurt by these massive amounts of fish, especially when they classify them as a "super-predator".
    Now that the Scientist have made it public to hut them and kill them in every reef around, people are now make some money and creating a business out of these fish. People have invested in killing these fish and then, now selling there less than a pound fillets for around $12 dollars. At fish people said that they wouldn't eat it, cause of its harmful poisonous defense systems and mechanisms. People in Florida now have Lion fish venders all over the place and are selling them a lot, because the people say they love them.

   I think that this has a direct relation to the class, because last week we were talking about overpopulation, harm to ecosystems, biodiversity, the way that we effect species, and also ways that invasive species infect our native species as well. There are a couple ways that the Lion fish can be hurtful and harmful to our reefs, but most importantly is them killing the native reef species. They pose a threat to the ecosystem that is in effect on our reef's off Florida coast, if they kill the native fish, they could also kill coral and some bigger fish too. But we must also think about how they could be a part of the ecosystem now, and that the native fish have sort of adapted to there predatory ways. We want to kill the majority of them but, in my personal opinion i don't think we should kill them all cause just like every other native fish, they have become important now too.
Links to Pictures in the post.

Electrically Charged

While reading through my feed I saw a very interesting article about San Diego. The people there teamed up with a big environmentally aware organization. Where they made plans and went to the city to ask if they could build and have a free electric charge station. In order to save our resources and make individual impacts, now the people of San Diego can charge their electric cars so that they don't need to buy or use gas. My hopes and also theirs when I was reading the article that hopefully their ideas will spread worldwide and it will start that everyone is using energy and saving our gas.  

Professionals on Sustainability

We have been talking about sustainability in class all week, and how the people on our earth are using to much of our valuable and precious natural resources to meet there high demand of needs. there is a lot of controversy over the topic and many different associations are getting involved every day in taking a step closer to saving our environment and our earth. I recently read online a journal website that has been publishing scientific articles for the last decade on some of the same topics that wee have been talking about in class.